Amazon unveils timeline for mega festive sale event SALES AT A GLANCE

Amazon India on Tuesday revealed the timeline for its flagship Great Indian Festival (GIF), which will commence from October 17.

This will be Amazon India’s biggest event to date, as it will go on for at least a month. The event will allow hundreds of thousands of small and medium businesses (SMBS) to put up their products for sale. “This year’s GIF is an opportunity for our sellers and partners to reach millions of customers. Our sellers are excited and expect this to help them accelerate their business,” said Manish Tiwary, vicepresident, Amazon India.

Customers will also have the opportunity to shop for unique products from thousands of Amazon sellers, under various programmes. These are — Local Shops, Amazon Launchpad, Amazon Saheli, and Amazon Karigar. They will also get access to deals and offers extended by small businesses. Prime members will get early access to the event starting October 16.

According to a recent survey by Nielsen, more than 85 per cent of SMB sellers on Amazon.in expect to reach out to new customers and see an increase in sales. More than 74 per cent of them are optimistic about a recovery in business, and 78 per cent positive about an increase in visibility.

Walmart-owned Flipkart is also hosting its flagship Big Billion Days (BBD) — a six-day event, which will commence from October 16. In order to ensure safe and reliable deliveries during the GIF, Amazon has ramped up its delivery infrastructure, adding 200 delivery stations. It has also added tens of thousands of delivery partners.

It has expanded its fulfilOver 650,000 sellers offer millions of products to customers on Amazon.in 100,000 local shops and kiranas have been enabled by Amazon to serve customers

Over 900 product launches from top brands like Samsung, Oneplus & Apple ment centres to above 60 across 15 states, offering a storage capacity of over 32 million cubic feet. Amazon India has also announced five new sort centres and expansion of eight existing sort centres.

Amazon said customers can support businesses by shopping from hundreds of SMB deals and get rewards that they can redeem during the sale.

For instance, customers can shop for Sambalpuri sarees from Odisha, robotic vacuum cleaners from ILIFE, and haircare products from Arata Beauty. Other such products are exercise bikes and dumbbells from Kilkfit, memory foam mattresses from Insleep, and Jewelry from Swara Creations.

Over 900 new product launches from top brands such as Samsung, Oneplus, and Apple are expected, along with Boat, Sennheiser, LG, and Titan.

Customers can experience new deals from sellers being announced every day, from large brands across categories.

In light of the upcoming wedding season, Amazon said its store is offering a wide range of products. The Dhanteras store will offer deals on gold coins, utensils, and Diwali home décor.